Overwatch League Drops in Viewership During Week Two, but Finds a Stable New Normal

Average viewership for Overwatch League, aggregated across main, French, and Korean Twitch channels, dropped from 109,400 average CCV in week one, to 75,300 in week two.

To compare it to another competition the first week of NA LCS matches in 2017 had an average CCV of 90,100. It’s worth noting that 2017 NA LCS matches ran for three days a week last year, while OWL plays over four.

OWL viewership across week two stayed comparatively steady compared to week one, with smaller peaks across individual matches. More data from subsequent weeks will be needed to see if the competition has found its baseline viewership

It comes as no surprise that the Overwatch League would see a drop in viewership after its debut week. Not only has the hype worn off, but there remains a concern that watching Overwatch esports is difficult for non-players to spectate, and audience members with less knowledge of the game were not likely to return week after week.

Nevertheless, viewership during week two was far more stable. The difference in peak viewership between the most watched match (Dallas Fuel and Houston Outlaws) and the least watched (Philadelphia Fusion vs Los Angeles Gladiators) was 44,000—a 25.7 percent decrease. Comparatively, there was a 61.7 percent decrease between peak viewership for the most and least watched matches during OWL’s debut week.

Key insights on individual teams and matches:

The match between local rivals Dallas Fuel and Houston Outlaws was the most viewed game of week two (for the main, English broadcast), peaking at 171,000 CCV.

With the exception of the match above, matches featuring the Los Angeles Valiant have been the most watched of their respective day, across both weeks.

The close match between London Spitfire and Los Angeles Valiant on day four of week two drew in the largest simultaneous audience yet for the French broadcast, with a maximum CCV of 156,000.

Key games and data points to watch during week three:

The third week of the Overwatch League will see the first clash between two all Korean teams: Seoul Dynasty against New York Excelsior, on Jan. 27. Along with London Spitfire, all of these teams are currently undefeated, and have collectively dropped only five maps across all matches.

The match between the Los Angeles Gladiators and Los Angeles Valiant might provide insight as to whether games with clear storylines—in this case a local rivalry—can drive viewership.

The data in this article was collected from TEO Audience Insights. You can learn more about the platform and discover more streaming stats yourself by clicking here.

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